This year, the Festival des Templiers celebrates its 30th anniversary from October 17 to 20. We take a look back at the most memorable editions of this not-to-be-missed event in the trail calendar, which attracts over 13,000 participants to the Grands Causses region every year.
15 races on the program, 13,000 competitors, 1,200 volunteers, 460 km of marked trails and a thirtieth edition to go down in history. The figures for Festival des Templiers say a lot about an event that has long since become a key date in the trail season, both in France and abroad. This year, We Rock Sport will be on hand to take part in one of the 15 races on the program, with distances ranging from 7 to 100 km. Next October, from October 17 to 20, trail enthusiasts will gather in Millau to explore the Grands Causses region, culminating in the Grand Trail des Templiers (80.6 km - 3530 m+), which closes the weekend with 2,500 runners starting on Sunday. But before we get to the 2024 edition, we'd like to take a look back at six of the most memorable editions of the Festival des Templiers.
1995 - an unremarkable premiere
In the spring of 1995, Gilles Bertrand and Odile Baudrier came up with an old project: the creation of a trail race modelled on the Western STATES and the Leadville 100, two benchmark events in the USA. On October 28, 1995, 500 runners set off from the foot of the ramparts of Sainte Eulalie for 65 km. Adventure was the order of the day for these trailblazers. The event took place without intermediate checkpoints, radio links or cell phones. At the refreshment station in St Paul des Fonts, only one landline telephone was available to provide information on the passage of the runners. At the finish, the wait for the first runner lasted a long time, and the time forecasts were only approximate. The race took place without any real reference points, and in the end 367 runners finished. The winner Patrick Renard, a good marathoner with a time of 2:18, confessed himself surprised by his pace on this atypical event, which he approached like a giant cross-country race!
2007 - Thomas Lorblanchet, four-time winner and future world champion
In 2002, aged just 22, Thomas Lorblanchet discovered the Grand Trail des Templiers, having turned his back on triathlon, inspired by the finish image of Patrick Renard, the 1995 winner. Winning the event became an obsession for him, until he finally achieved consecration in 2007, for his sixth participation. The Clermont-Ferrand native went on to win in 2008, 2011 and again in 2013, and remains the only man to have claimed 4 victories. First revealed at the Templiers, this new face of trail running distinguished himself by becoming the first Trail World Champion in 2009, then in 2012, when he won the Leadville Trail in Colorado, USA, the only European to win this benchmark event. Thomas has now been a speaker for the Templiers for several years.
2010 - a radical shift to Millau
With the 15th edition of the Festival des Templiers just a month away in October 2009, the future of the event is under discussion. The technical difficulties of staging such an event, already with 5,400 participants and 7 races, in the village of Nant (population 400), and with no infrastructure, were becoming increasingly onerous. The day after the event, Gilles Bertrand and Odile Baudrier made up their minds: from 2010 onwards, the event would be held in Millau, the town where they live and work.
A huge amount of work then began to rebuild all the courses, define the refreshment points and build a start and finish area. A radical change with the satisfaction of seeing runners sign up in large numbers, also attracted by these new features. A few editions later, the consensus was total: these new courses were acclaimed for their originality, their variety of surfaces and their rich heritage.... A new page has been turned!
2011 - Financial incentives for first-timers
The arrival of new partners boosts the Festival des Templiers budget, and the decision is taken to introduce financial bonuses for the best male and female trail runners. This was a way of recognizing the importance of an elite group to the event's reputation, of associating them financially with its success, and of contributing to its professionalization. The initial price scale is set at 2,000 euros for the first-place winner. For the 30th edition in 2024, it will amount to 10,000 euros in the event of victory. Bonuses have also been introduced on the Endurance Trail since 2021 with 3,000 euros and for the first time in 2024, for the Marathon des Causses with 2,000 euros. Since the beginning of the Templiers, prize money has been the same for men and women!
2019 - The weather dictates
With the 2019 edition only a few days away, the weather forecasts are in a state of flux. On the morning of Saturday October 19, there was still some uncertainty about Sunday's conditions for the Grand Trail des Templiers. At the end of the day, Gilles Bertrand and the people in charge of medical safety met to analyze the situation in the light of the thunderstorm forecast for the following day. Several scenarios were drawn up, including a shortened route, stopping the race at a refreshment station, repatriation by bus... Then Pascal, in charge of race headquarters, unfurled the next day's thunderstorm projections on his giant screen. Hundreds of impacts appear all along the course! The decision was made: a complete cancellation, unique in the history of the Templiers. A real disappointment, of course, for the 2,600 registered runners who had been preparing for the event for months... But safety came first, and the responsibility of the organizers dictated their choice. The following day, the South Aveyron region saw a record number of lightning strikes, with no less than 4,000 strikes in the race area!
2023 - Julie Roux, the victory of a young mother engineer
Trail running is only a recent passion for Julie Roux, who only took up the sport six years ago, after many years of kayak polo, a discipline in which she won several European and world titles with the French team. And Julie has been able to translate this high-level experience into trail racing, immediately achieving some very fine performances. In 2021, she distinguished herself with a third-place finish in the Grand Trail des Templiers behind New Zealander Ruth Croft and Spaniard Gemma Arenas. And in 2023, she won the race with ease. Yet the young electronics engineer had given birth to her second child just 4 months earlier! Julie Roux had hoped to return to the Grand Trail des Templiers as soon as possible: "Preparation goes better for an event like this, which makes sense!
